They say, whoever “they” are, that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, sometimes
words aren’t the only currency to measure its value. Some pictures cost millions of
dollars, and a photo of Billy the Kid found in a thrift store is a good example of that.
First off, for those of you wondering who Billy the Kid is and why someone would be
willing to pay millions for his picture: he was a legend of the Wild West. William Henry
McCarty (that was his real name) was born in 1859 in New York. He only lived for 21
years, but even in that short time, this young man of Irish origin managed to become one
of the most famous outlaws of his era. Interestingly, he never robbed banks, trains, or stagecoaches,
but was rustling cattle and took part in gunfights. Even when he was captured, he managed to design
a daring jailbreak. All this makes him quite an interesting figure in the eyes of Wild
West fans. And, pictures of him are so rare, those fans are ready to pay millions for them.
Now, when I say rare, I mean there was just one officially confirmed picture of him by
2011. I’ll tell you more about that later. Now let’s focus on the more recent find.
Back in 2010, a collector from Fremont, California, went shopping for antiques at a junk shop
with his wife in Fresno, CA. Among the odds and ends and old furniture, they found two
cardboard boxes with photographs. In there was a 4x5 tintype (that’s a photograph on
a thin sheet of metal) that the collector liked. He bought the picture and two other
photographs for $2. The picture showed a group of men playing croquet. At the time he purchased
it, the lucky collector had no idea it was a rare image of Billy the Kid himself from
1878. But as he gave the picture a closer look, he realized he’d found a real gem!
It wasn’t a random group of cowboys, but the legendary outlaw with his gang, the Regulators.
However, when it comes to historical pictures, you can’t just claim that what you found
is the real thing and worth millions of dollars. It took years to confirm the image was, indeed,
original. One of the producers of National Geographic was dedicated to help him in his
quest for the truth. To prove that the image wasn’t a fake, they had to travel as far
as New Mexico, to the location you can see in the picture, and find the now-abandoned
building in the back. They found the exact rock piers and the old lumber underneath.
When the picture was brought for official authentication to Kagin’s, a firm specializing
in Western Americana and Rare Coins, they were skeptical about it at first. It’s no
surprise, really, since pictures of Billy the Kid are so rare, quite a lot of people
who know the value try to make money by making look-alikes. But the company experts knew
this one was real because they managed to identify Billy, as well as other people in
the picture, as members of the Regulators gang using facial recognition software. One
of them was Sallie Chisum. She mentioned Billy the Kid in her personal journals, and one
record was of a wedding between Charlie Bowdre, who’s sitting on the horse in the photo,
and Manuella Bowdre. It took place in the summer of 1878, a month after the gang participated
in the Lincoln County conflict. Once the experts had no doubt the tintype was real, the owner
of Kagin’s described the picture as “perhaps the single most compelling piece of Western
Americana that we have ever seen” because of its historical importance. The executive
director of the National Geographic documentary about the picture called it the holy grail,
not only of the Wild West, but photography in general, and “the rarest photograph in
the world”. So now I guess it makes perfect sense why this $2 junk shop find has been
estimated to be worth $5 million.
Another officially confirmed photo of Billy the Kid sold at Auction for $2.3 million in
2011. Collectors and Wild West fans arrived in Denver, ready to fight for the gem. It
was expected to go for $400,000, but obviously, the buyer gave more than 5 times as much for
it, and it became one of the most expensive old West memorabilia ever sold. That tintype
was also taken outside a saloon in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, around 1880. Billy was posing
with a Winchester carbine and a Colt 45 pistol at his hip. If you expected a twisted and
exciting story about how this one got to the auction house, I might disappoint you. This
time, it wasn’t found at a junk shop for close to nothing but sold by the descendants
of Dan Dedrick. He’d received the picture directly from his partner in cattle rustling
crime, Billy the Kid himself. A businessman from Florida purchased it out of his love
for the Old West as an important part of American history. He said he would let some small museums
exhibit the picture first, and then keep it for his own pleasure.
The third picture of Billy the Kid that has become famous worldwide hasn’t been auctioned
yet. But if it is, it’ll be worth even more than $5 million! What makes this picture unique
is that it supposedly shows both Billy the Kid and Sheriff Pat Garrett, who ended the
famous outlaw’s life at the age of 21. Ironically, Billy and Pat used to be good friends, and
they’d spent time together in New Mexico. Then, Garrett was appointed Lincoln County
Sheriff in November 1880, and that turned their friendship into a feud. Garrett offered
his ex-friend a deal: Billy was supposed to leave New Mexico and take his crimes elsewhere,
and Garrett wouldn’t chase him. But if he had stayed in the area, the sheriff promised
to arrest him. The Kid chose to stay and was arrested by his once good friend. And even
though he escaped from jail, he was found later in Fort Sumner. Seeing the two of them
in the picture together (the Kid is supposedly the guy with the prominent Adam's apple, and
Garrett is the one on the far right wearing a dark hat) –it’s amazing.
Just as amazing is the fact that the picture was sold at a flea market in Asheville for
$10 in 2011. The new owner put it in the North Carolina home he rented out on Airbnb. It
was hanging there for years as a mere wall decoration until 2015, when the owner watched
the documentary about the new Billy the Kid picture playing croquet. The lawyer who purchased
the photo recognized the familiar features. He gave the tintype a second look and became
convinced it was Billy himself with a group of four Wild West cowboys. Because of his
interest in history, he decided to investigate the matter to find out if the picture was
indeed a 137-year-old photograph of the legend. He asked a retired professor and tintype expert
for help. He confirmed the picture was taken between 1875 and 1880 judging by how the the
plate, the clothing and the firearm look. A forensics expert who studied the picture
using facial recognition software confirmed it must have been Garrett and the Kid. The
date written on the picture – August 2, 1880 – was also a clue. A handwriting expert
from Texas compared it with 10 documents written by Sheriff Garrett and said it was a match!
You can only imagine how excited the man who bought the picture was when he found out it
was the real deal! He said in an interview that if he’d known about its true importance
earlier, he would have charged more for the room where it was hanging on the wall. Understandably,
he took the image down and put it in a safe deposit box. Experts are positive if he decides
to sell it at auction he could get way more than $5 million for this gem! However, the
lucky owner says as of now, he doesn’t want to find out. He’s just happy to have that
unique piece of history in his possession. Do you like shopping for antiques and vintage
stuff? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, then give
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